Biden On SCOTUS: ‘We’re Watching A Constitutional Crisis In The Making’

Vice President Joe Biden took Republican senators to task Thursday for their vocal refusal to even consider President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, saying the country is “watching a constitutional crisis” play out.

“Even the most serious and persistent national crises haven’t motivated this current Congress to find a middle ground,” Biden said during a speech at Georgetown University Law Center. “We’re watching a constitutional crisis in the making, born out of dysfunction in Washington.”

Biden called federal appellate court Judge Merrick Garland “eminently qualified” for the position. He said he has seen “no one” question Garland’s qualifications and “open-mindedness.”

“They’re undermining the norms for how we conduct ourselves. They’re threatening what we value most,” he said.

Biden also addressed the so-called “Biden Rule,” a term that arose from selective quoting of a speech he gave in 1992 from the Senate floor about nominations to the high court after Justice Thurgood Marshall retired. He characterized the rule as “frankly ridiculous” and said it doesn’t exist.

“They completely neglected to quote my unequivocal bottom line,” he said before quoting from his old speech.

“I said, and I quote, ‘If the President consults and cooperates with the Senate or moderates his selections absent consultation, then his nominees may enjoy my support as did Justices Kennedy and Souter,'” he recalled.

The former Democratic senator said he’s been responsible for seeing through the vetting of more Supreme Court nominees “than anyone alive.”

“And in all that time, every nominee was greeted by committee members. Every nominee got a committee hearing,” he said. “Every nominee got out of the committee to the Senate floor. And every nominee, including Justice Kennedy—in an election year—got an up or down vote by the Senate. Not much of the time. Not most of the time. Every single, solitary time.”

Biden said Republican leadership’s decision not to consider a nominee is “not an option” in the Constitution, characterizing it as an unprecedented “abdication of duty.”

“The American people deserve a fully-staffed Supreme Court of nine,” Biden declared.

The dysfunction of the Senate cannot be allowed “to fester” to another part of government, he warned.

“At times like these, we need more than ever to have a fully functioning Court, a Court that can resolve divisive issues peacefully. Even when they resolve them in direction I didn’t like,” he said. “Dysfunction and partisanship are bad enough on Capitol Hill. We can’t let the Senate spread this dysfunction to another branch of the government to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Biden reminded the audience that Obama and himself were once senators who took the “advice and consent” clause seriously.

The vice president also made a point of saying that Obama chose a moderate judge to nominate to the high court.

“The President did not go out and find another Brennan,” Biden said. “Merrick Garland, intellectually, is as capable as any justice, but he has a reputation for moderation. I think that’s a responsibility of a administration in a divided government.”